working together with Him in that which renders His unspeakable Goodness and Almightiness most conspicuous, namely, His way of drawing out of the deadly poison of malice and wickedness the sweet and precious fruit of virtue and goodness.
Know, then, beloved, that when the Lord has discovered in us the desire to yield ourselves up in earnest, and to strive as we ought for so great a prize, He at once prepares for us a cup of the sharpest temptations and hardest trials, that we may drink it when He wills; and we, as we acknowledge His love and our own profit, should receive it cheerfully and blindly, and drink it trustingly and unhesitatingly to the very dregs, for it is a medicine, mixed by an unerring Hand, and composed of ingredients which are as profitable to the soul as they are bitter in themselves.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
How to avail ourselves of the various Occasions which present themselves for the Exercise of a single Virtue.
IT has been already seen, that it is better to exercise ourselves in a single virtue at a time than in many at once; and that we should
